Leading disability charity Papworth Trust launches a major new service

Published by Sarj for Papworth Trust in Communities and also in Education, Health

Papworth Trust has created the pioneering Disability Advisory Service to provide training and advice to help organisations become more disability confident. Manager James Murphy says: “We find that most employers and service providers want their teams to be confident about disability. We provide a better understanding of disability so both public and private sector organisations can make a real and positive change to the lives of their disabled employees.”

Top tips:

1) Talk – ask people if they can suggest any ideas for improvement – often a very small simple change can make a big difference
2) Be informed - there’s lot of free advice and guidance on the web including the Papworth Trust website
3) Be aware – help increase disability awareness across your organisation. Some of your employees or customers may have hidden disabilities – less than 8% of disabled people use a wheelchair

The Service has recently been awarded a contract by Northamptonshire County Council. The Council was keen to invite Adult Social Care customers and their carers to help ensure that services provided in the county are of a high standard and offer good value for money.

“ The Disability Advisory Service is enabling Northants Adult Services customers to play a pivotal role in checking the quality of the services they receive,” says James, “I am sure that the pioneering way that Papworth Trust involves its own customers in all areas of its work played a big part in us being awarded this contract.”

The Disability Advisory Service also works closely with Papworth Trust’s own employment service which in partnership with (Ingeus in Northamptonshire, and Reed, TNG and A4E in Cambridgeshire) and Jobcentre Plus, helps disabled people and people who have been out of work for more than 12 months, get back to work. The Trust is available to offer employers a unique no-cost recruitment service offering them potential employees with the right skill set for their chosen role.

Each year the Trust helps over 17,000 people from the East of England and beyond through a range of services covering Employment, Vocational Rehabilitation, Housing, Personal Support and Learning for Life and Work.

For more information call 01284 748821, or freephone 0800 952 5000, email das@papworth.org.uk or visit www.papworth.org.uk